The “must listen” pile has been growing steadily, so I again offer up a few quick first- or second-impression reviews to reduce its height. The four featured albums include two jazz releases that follow the familiar format of improvising on a written composition and two that offer intuitively improvised compositions. All four albums have much to offer.
“My level of I-don’t-give-a-fuckery is so high right now,” Mustafa Stefan Dill, oudist, guitarist, composer, told me on the phone. He meant that in a positive way. Explode Yourself, the new release from Love Unfold the Sun, is a liberated celebration of life, unconcerned with fitting itself into any box‚ blowing the box wide open, in fact. This Friday, the band celebrates the album’s release at Paradiso in Santa Fe.
The Santa Fe/Albuquerque-based quartet Love Unfold the Sun and the Boston-based band Club d’Elf share a number of characteristics. They both blend Middle Eastern/African and Western elements, and incorporate an exotic instrument. Texture plays an important role in the musical development of their material. Flow is prized over destination. Yet, even with these similarities, the two groups make music that is quite different.
Continue readingBoth Nolatet and OrnEtc., ensembles of inspired madness, offer complex, rambunctious music that is accessible and fun. They’re storytellers at heart, and the logic of their stories, and their joy in telling them, keep the listener connected. Located in New Orleans and Santa Fe, respectively, they offer evidence that some very interesting music is being created outside the power centers of New York, Los Angeles, and Nashville. Continue reading
